40 HP Case Steam Engine on the Incline at Pawnee

Enlarge Image Image Gallery At the controls of the 40 HP Case was Chady Atteberry of Blackwell, Oklahoma.

More than 80 years ago in 1902 and at the St. Louis World's Fair in 1904 the J. I. Case Threshing Machine Co. started running its steam engines up an incline to demonstrate the machines' ability.

'Case engines are the only real hill climbers,' proclaimed a banner in a postal card view of such a stunt printed in this magazine in Jan/Feb 1985.

Now the incline demonstration has been revived as a real crowd pleaser at the Oklahoma Steam & Gas Engine Show held the first week end in May in Pawnee, Oklahoma.

At the controls of the 40 HP Case was Chady Atteberry of Blackwell, Oklahoma.

"The late E.C. 'Big Mac' McMillian started climbing the incline at Wichita in 1952 with the same engine I used at Pawnee," said Atteberry. At that time, Big Mac owned it.

"Big Mac was the very best of engineers," Atteberry continued. "He started training me in 1952. I now own the engine, a 40 HP Case No. 31393 built in 1914. Big Mac always referred to this engine as his 'Elgin Watch' 40.

"Until this year, I hadn't been on an incline with this engine since May 30, 1955, almost 30 years ago. The incline is a 50 percent grade which was the standard incline the Case Co. used for many years."

But something happened at the Pawnee show that wouldn't have been heard of in 1904.

A woman was aboard the steam engine on the incline, risking life and limb right along with Atteberry.

But it wasn't just any woman. It was Helen Case Brigham, great-granddaughter of J. I. Case himself.

"She wants to ride up to the top of the incline with me next year,'"Atteberry said. "If she is game, I'll take her up."

It wasn't until just recently that Mrs. Brigham discovered such shows were presented. She lamented that she and her husband had "neglected our sons' educations when they were younger. We certainly would have exposed them years ago if we had been informed of the shows' existence."

The family is beginning to attend steam shows across the nation. Helen's eldest son was with her at Pawnee and her 29-year-old planned to attend the Denton, North Carolina, show in July.